Often when we discuss the process of marketing your business, the first thing that comes to the mind of the owner or manager is the cost. Small businesses, especially those in a start-up phase, are closely monitoring every dollar that’s invested back into the business.

One would be a fool to simply toss their earnings toward advertising or marketing without having some sense of a return on their investment.

But every day more and more businesses are rolling the dice, and spending gobs of cash on what many have dubbed “Pay and Pray” advertising. This is simply ad space that you pay for, usually top dollar, and pray that someone sees it and reacts to your call-to-action.

Now don’t get me wrong, your initial attempts at identifying your target audience will result in some not-so stellar returns, but that is to be expected. As you refine your message, you’ll be able to fire your offers directly to your ideal customer like a highly camouflaged recon sniper! Your aim will be deadly accurate, and you’ll be able to quickly decipher between a solid marketing investment and a told waste of cash.

But what I want to reveal to you today, is that truly successful marketers don’t require a tightly rolled wad of cash in their pocket to draw in new customers and create repeat buyers out of your existing ones. They have something that can only be attained after you have made the decision to stop coloring within the lines and following the advice of telephone advertising sales reps.

What they have in stock is an incredible amount of imagination.

And it’s FREE!

imag·i·na·tion (Merriam-Webster)

noun i-ˌma-jə-ˈnā-shən

: the ability to imagine things that are not real : the ability to form a picture in your mind of something that you have not seen or experienced

: the ability to think of new things

: something that only exists or happens in your mind

In order to reach new sets of eyes, you have to break through the clutter of the over 3,000 marketing messages each person digests daily. To put it in perspective, that’s the equivalent of you attempting to communicate your message to a single person over the roar of roughly 273 football teams! In the crowded world of sales and marketing, imagination is now king.

Money can buy you distance, but imaginative marketing will earn you their attention. Start thinking like a kid again. Use your creativity to reach past the messages of those who comfortably remain nestled within confines of the status-quo. Get excited about the endless opportunities you have to share your dreams, desires and stories. When you start taking action to answer those “what if” questions, you’ll begin to notice that nothing is impossible. In fact, some of the best results are often sparked when an idea is met with a response of…”No. We couldn’t do that…could we?

That’s when you know you’re on to something really special!

“There are no such thing as limits to growth, because there are no limits on the human capacity for